The present invention relates to a carving machine for flat material, such as wood mouldings, that combines in one machine a traditional carving head and a multi-axis carving head, so that the workpiece can be carved by both heads in one pass, to produce a variety of interesting and intricate designs in the workpiece.
Flat material, such as wooden mouldings, can traditionally be carved automatically by a machine that feeds the workpiece under a spinning carving head that has affixed to it one or more blades. As the spinning blades contact the workpiece, a straight, uniform channel is produced in the workpiece. In the traditional carving machine, the carving head is fixed in place and does not change position either vertically or horizontally with respect to the workpiece.
In some limited applications, it is known to move the carving head vertically with respect to the workpiece, in order to either maintain an even depth of cut when the surface of the workpiece varies (as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,891,015) or to produce ornamental patterns by vibrating the cutter structure and oscillating it orbitally (as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,882,911).
Russian Federation Patent No. RU-2094238, of which one of the present inventors is the inventor, discloses a multi-axis carving machine that can, under program control, move a cutting head parallel to and perpendicular to the surface of the workpiece as the workpiece is moved under the cutting head.
However, the inventors do not know of any carving machine that combines the traditional flat material carving machine with a multi-axis carving machine to produce both types of carvings in a single pass through the machine.
Apparatus and method for carving a uniformly carved portion and a variably carved portion in a workpiece in a single pass. The apparatus consists of a uniform carving head fixed relative to the workpiece and a variable carving head that is movable simultaneously in two directions substantially perpendicular to the motion of the workpiece. A control system, which may include a programmable computer, controls the motion of the variable carving head.
A principle object and advantage of the present invention is that it can carve both a uniformly carved portion and a variably carved portion into the workpiece in a single pass.
A second principle object and advantage of the present invention is that it can carve either uniformly or variably or both.
Another principle object and advantage of the present invention is that it may include a control system to control the speed of movement of the workpiece past the carving heads and to control the motion of the variable carving head.
A feature of the invention is that it may include side carving heads to cut the width of the workpiece for the exact size required.
Another feature of the invention is self-adjusting feed rollers which can take variation of the material thickness into account without causing any damage to the workpiece or to the machine.
Another feature of the invention is a self-adjusting hold-down mechanism which can hold the workpiece down on the machine for continuous accurate carving of the workpiece.